


Reflections of Us

by BourbonNeat



Category: The Grand Tour (TV) RPF, Top Gear (UK) RPF
Genre: Comfort, Established Relationship, Filming, Life Changes, M/M, TGS 1000 words challenge, they are a unit!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-14
Updated: 2017-05-14
Packaged: 2018-10-31 21:45:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10908057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BourbonNeat/pseuds/BourbonNeat
Summary: It’s just another photo of the three of them. But there’s something important there, something it takes Richard decades to define.





	Reflections of Us

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: This is fiction. It never happened and is not meant to imply anything about the people mentioned in the story.
> 
> Written for the TGS Picture Paints a 1000 Words challenge, a 1,000-word fic based on this image:

 

It was just another photo of the three of them, the latest of dozens currently crowding Jeremy’s iPhone. Richard had made dire predictions about this one. A reflection shot, outdoors, at this time of day? But handing the mobile back to his smug colleague, he had to concede that this was one of Jeremy’s better efforts.

If anything, the photo should have been more remarkable for its timing – right after the sort of successful film shoot that a mere six months ago it seemed impossible they would ever enjoy again – than for the subject matter. But there was something almost magical in the combination of their own pleased, relaxed, borderline triumphant stances, and the play of shadows and golden hues in the fading light. Something Richard couldn’t quite define.

 

*******

 

Richard never saw who swiped Jeremy’s mobile later that night in the bar, but soon the day’s photos were making the rounds of the room.

“Bloody hell, it's an actual hero shot,” Andy proclaimed over the last image, his laughter at once fond and disbelieving. “Though what you three might be heroes of, I'm sure I don't know.”

And, yes, that was apt as well. A hero shot. Like at the end of a Western or some other adventure, all foes vanquished and wrongs set right again. Richard found he liked the idea immensely. "Heroes in the great war on your patience?" He suggested.

Andy howled in approval as he passed the mobile on. “Too right you are. Thrice decorated with statues built in your dishonor.”

"Heroes of lost plots and unnecessary causes," James offered, raising his pint.

Soon everyone joined in.

“One for all, and all for cocking about?”

“…heroic amounts of alcohol…”

And, floating on laughter, camaraderie, and several gin and tonics, Richard felt as much like he’d come home as he had during the past several days’ filming.

 

*******

 

Another six months, another seemingly impossible milestone: studio filming in Johannesburg.

Richard was elated, bouncing off the walls excited. Their new tent. The set. So many of their oldest friends and several new ones preparing for the day with a familiar blend of madness and efficiency. It was Dunsfold, only more so.

Unfortunately, that included Jeremy stressing over every minute detail the way he always had, only _much_ more so. Concerned, Richard and James had tried dragging the man outside for breaks, off to bed, and even into arguments. But every trick they’d added to their considerable arsenal over the years only calmed him temporarily.

Later, talking a relaxing scroll through the photos on his phone, Richard began to consider a new trick.

“It’s the three of us against the world,” he explained, handing Jeremy a copy of the Barbados photo in a small leather travel frame. “On the verge of something new and so close you can even see it in silhouette.

“This could all turn out brilliantly, Jezza, or be complete rubbish. It doesn’t matter, because in the end it will always be the three of us, together like this.”

Jeremy called him soppy, and a not-so-big girl’s blouse. But his voice was warm and his eyes suspiciously moist as the taut line of his shoulders truly relaxed for the first time in days.

 

*******

 

Years later, after _The Grand Tour_ , after its various follow-up projects, it was Richard’s turn to worry over change.

“The pub’s going to be fantastic, James.” He tried to keep the uncertainty out of his voice as he surveyed the partially finished and, as yet, unnamed space. Failed. “But I don’t know. This was always your and Jeremy’s dream. Then I have my place up the road…”

His little farm with the beloved menagerie Jeremy helped him acquire over the years, and the near professional garage James helped him design. It seemed at once his and Jeremy’s dream, and his and James’ dream, and now sadly destined to be his dream all on his own.

“It’s not about yours and ours, Hammond. _We’re_ living in two places now, the same way we lived in three…” He trailed off as he caught Richard’s expression.

Eyes kind, James beckoned him over and pointed to the focus of his puttering, a slightly larger print of a familiar photo now hanging behind the bar.

“I’ve always loved this one,” James said. “Nothing about it should have worked. Yet it’s absolutely gorgeous.”

Richard felt James’ arms wrap around him from behind and relaxed into the comfort of the familiar embrace.

“I can’t tell you exactly how it’s going to work. I’ve never understood that myself. But I can tell you that somehow it will, because somehow it always has. Brilliantly.”

 

*******

 

Now, still more years later, Richard finds himself in another airport contemplating change again.

He’s dabbled in filming projects since his semi-official retirement. They all have. But this is the first that will take one of them away from the others for months, a nature documentary that already has people whispering about this generation’s _Planet Earth_.

Richard is excited and honored. And scared out of his mind.

He glances again at the small padded envelope in his lap, the one James quietly pressed into his hands as Jeremy hugged him goodbye, and finally decides to open it. Peeling open the flap, he’s not entirely surprised to find himself staring at the photo again. But it’s Jeremy’s photo, well-worn travel frame and all. That and the words on the note that falls into his lap blow him away.

First, in Jeremy’s cramped handwriting: _Remember what you said to me when you gave me this. It’s still true. Every single word._

Followed by James’ messy scrawl: _This photo has travelled the world in the best company. And at the end of the journey, it always comes home safely._

Richard’s eyes are damp, but his smile rivals the sun. Because he is loved, and the photo will remind him of them in all the ways he can explain, and all the ways he can never explain.

Until he is back home again.

 


End file.
